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Friday, July 09, 2010

Advice to New Writers - plus interesting films & science

Storytelling is the only verified form of magic: to form incantations in the reader’s mind, to have them envision imaginary worlds, feel profound emotions, or experience new thoughts. David Brin encapsulates advice for aspiring writers in this Youtube video -- for how they can take the first steps toward becoming successful authors.

I just rented SLEEP DEALER, directed by Alex Rivera, a charming, clever and well-crafted little film - almost entirely in Spanish but with good subtitles - set in a near future when the “migrant” labor force stays in Mexico but jacks in to control robotic waldo-drones on US construction sites and in American agricultural fields. One could quibble about this and that -- e.g. the American military’s rules of civilian protection - but none of that detracts from a lovely story, and the first really good science fiction film I’ve seen that takes you cutlurally south....

...as opposed to east. While you are at it, rent 2009: LOST MEMORIES, a Korean (yes that’s right) sci fi epic (3 hours) with very high production values, set in a parallel world where Japan retained its empire by siding with the US in WWII, with Koreans fighting for independence well into the 21st century. The premise: “a failed assassination attempt in Harbin, China in 1909 changes the course of history. Now two JBI agents must find the connections between it and an ancient Korean artifact.” On the downside, like many eastern films, it is past-obsessed and a mystical carved stone is the mcGuffin, rather than forward-aimed technology. Most scenes proceed at a somewhat glacial pace, even the great big gunfights. But that’s an education, too.

Do the metal coils in our mattresses focus or intensify FM & TV radio waves> Does this explain the lower incidence of melanoma and breast cancer in Japan, where such mattresses are rare?

I have long championed Resilience as an important, under-rated theme. Now see how brittle our defense establishment may be, thanks to over-reliance on a particular brand of software. An example of scooting way out on a limb and then sawing it off.

”In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of Wittenburg church, sparking the Reformation of the church and rise of Protestantism. 1618 marked the start of the 30 Years War and decades of religious conflict in Western Europe That conflict ended with the establishment of the Hanoverians in 1715. They ruled over Great Britain and Ireland, and Hanover (in Germany). The Congress of Vienna took place in 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon, and heralded a century of relative stability across Europe. In 1914 the First World War broke out, a catastrophic conflict that would claim millions of lives and set the tone for international discord throughout the 21st century.”

Sure, well, it feels a bit creepy. Still, um, the Hanoverian dynasty one is really a reach... even downright silly.

But here’s an eek. plain old eek. I have to agree. I don’t share genes with these folks.

21 comments:

Tim H.
said...

An "1859" level solar storm might remove the need for a human scew-up, wonder if EM damage would be worst on the sunward side of the planet? Failing that, a lot of China is looking fit to be described by Whitley Streiber, so something nasty wouldn't be a surprise. Africa and the mideast are too obvious, so think about what happens when our dear United States finds out how shallow our defense really is. And about those genes, don't be so sure, human genetics are extremely disorderly.

Thanks for posting the video! I'd never thought of my relationship with the reader in quite that way. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about implementing it! I'd hate to get carried away...

I really liked your idea of finding out where your pre-release readers could put down the story.

Also, thanks for mentioning Critters! I joined a couple of years ago, and I have to say that I think I might get more out of offering critiques than I do of receiving them. I'm going to take your video's advice about accepting suggestions on how to fix problems to heart; my philosophy's never to offer suggestions during a critique; I don't think that's my place! It was good to see a writer as accomplished as you are advocating the same thing.

It is the God of a universe nearly 14 BILLION years old, stretching across the vastness of a trillion trillion blazing stars. By comparison, a single planet, 6,000 years old, is singularly unimpressive. The revelations-junkies INSULT Him.

@Ian: Good point. Often, a lot of our assumptions about cultural evolution and what can be expected of a given nation and it's people are conditioned by an extremely Eurocentric bias to our understanding of history. Huge, horrible, world-shaking events have taken place in Asia that aren't even hinted at in a typical American textbook. While the civil war was raging in America, a conflagration that ultimately killed TEN TIMES as many people was burning in China, the Taiping Rebellion, led by a renegade prophet who, believing himself to be the "younger brother of Jesus Christ" and declared himself emperor, was slaughtering millions on the other side of the world.

Yet I did not know of this unbelievable event until I read it in a history book in 2006- and I consider myself a guy with a pretty good grasp of history!

Suddenly, the reason Jiang Zemin panicked over Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong movement becomes extremely clear. As does the fact that China's anti-cult crackdown coincided not with repression of orthodox religion, but an expansion of religious liberties (a decade ago, for instance, bookstores in China couldn't sell bibles. Today, not only can you buy a bible in any bookstore in Shanghai, but you can purchase endless translations of religious texts, from St. Augustine's Confessions and the Buddhist Sutras to "The Purpose-Driven Life" and the works of Oprah-guru Eckhart Tolle. Orthodox faiths have grown by the millions.)

This is just one random example, but it goes to show that there are huge, huge blind spots in our western grasp of history. Japan, India, China, Russia, the Iranians (after ancient times), the Turks... their epic and world-shaping histories are all too often off our radar. And these give us a great insight into how contemporary members of ancient civilizations handle themselves- in politics, in business, and in life in general. The memories of citizens of old civilizations are very, very long.

Especially when you consider that our advertisers and mainstream media generally, as well as our politicians of both parties love to use appeals that are deliberately aimed at (and prefer) an audience with that level of reasoning ability.

And Second, on the Great Events question: I believe you may have already nailed it on the big event of the 21st Century: the Helvetian War.

Of course, how that plays out may depend on the citizenry we have as reflected by my first point.

But as far as the world is concerned, the fall of Imperial China in 1912 was very close to 1914 and Europe's fall.

But yes, In 1948 we saw NATO and establishment of Pax Americana. 1848 was filled with hope-filled revolutions in Europe that ALMOST toppled old repressive regimes everywhere. 1740s War of Austrian succession was pretty big. 1640s English civil war and so on

Yes, I'd prefer - as traumatic events go for the 2014 era - the Helvetian war... for what it would imply about a revolutionary awakening of citizen power.

Yah it was Earth that provided enough bona fide magic for me to try on the perspective not just of a non-pacifist but an outright hawk as the gremper Hevletian War veteran with his three young proteges was the character I most identified with as he seemed to be about my age (born mid-1960's?). Somehow Brin came up with a casus belli even I can rally around. For better or for worse.

Earth - running the numbers, I think the old Helvetian War veteran was probably an Xer. The Boomers were Jen's age, and the economic collapse which would drive something as no-quarter as the Helvetian War (since it was over economic malpractice!)didn't start on OUR timeline until 2007. Looking back to the start of the economic boom, it's my guess that the earliest it could have happened was roughly 2000.

Just my $0.02

P.S. - if you want a generational run on Earth, which is really, really easy to do -

Jen - Boomer.Stanley; The old vet - GenX.George Hutton - MillenialTheresa & contemporaries - either very late Millenial or early New Silent; I'm going to go with them being Millies, just because they act like the ones I go to school with.Alex - decidedly New Silent.

The three harmless young delinquents and Claire - they act like very late wave New Silents (and as an Old Silent, that's a personality type I know full well.) But since the kids seem to define themselves by their *religions* - NoraChuGa, Ra Boys, etc, I'd have to go with the mid-21st century equivalent of Boomers. Which -to jump universes shamelessly - makes them contemporary with Heinlein's Man from Mars! (Oh, what a crossover fic I could write there.)

If I get the gist of what you're saying, the time window has already elapsed for Generation X to be fighting WWIII, so perhaps the Earth drama plays out around 2070? Transparency itself as cause worth fighting for, does that seem Generation X?

Of course there will still be non-retired boomers in 2038. And my prediction is that during my 70's (late 30's early 40's) the hit TV show will be called 'eightysomething.'

The Helvetian Wars will come. Every weekend I watch golf on TV. The golfomercials are more and more about 'wealth management,' code for 'gaming the system.'

is a scientist, futurist and best-selling author. His novels include Earth, Existence, The Postman, and Kiln People, as well as Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. The Transparent Society won a Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Assn.